<\/p>\n
A generated rendering of a proposed $800M mixed-use development at the southwest corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane. Contributing columnist Dallas Cothrum writes that the city needs more projects like this one.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of GFF<\/p>\n
The Dallas City Plan Commission (CPC) should have taken action Thursday on the proposed mixed-use project at the southwest corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane. I\u2019ve followed this zoning request closely, having already written on it<\/a>. This is a vitally important case in reshaping Dallas. All too often, the city passes on projects, determining they should be \u201csomewhere else.\u201d \u00a0Not deciding is a decision, and often a bad one.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve delayed the hearing due to \u201cimproper notice.\u201d \u00a0Here\u2019s an expert tip: When there are hundreds of signs up opposing the project and there have been community meetings, people have had plenty of notice. When the required zoning signs are not posted it\u2019s because someone has removed them, so that they can claim there is improper notice. It\u2019s just a stall tactic. Somehow this only happens in Dallas in this region.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dallas also is the only city that allows each side to pay a fee to delay the hearing. Another absurdity that hurts the city. Zoning cases in Dallas take twice as long as anywhere else, and not because zoning matters are more significant or technical here. Fort Worth cases take four months, while Dallas ones are eight months to a year. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n With little population growth, sagging sales tax receipts, flat property taxes and an aging population, Dallas can\u2019t ignore superior projects that grow the tax base. Unfortunately, people are not focused on the quality of the project. Instead, all they can do is worry about the height.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been amused by yard signs opposing the zoning case that are closer to Preston Center than the actual site. My planning firm handled Hanover Preston Hollow, a 23-story building of 213 units on Northwest Highway east of Preston. Opponents bemoaned how it would ruin the area \u201cbehind the pink wall.\u201d I\u2019ve seen no sign of the end of times.<\/p>\n The Preston\/Royal developer, Leland Burk, has already lowered the condo and hotel tower to 240 feet (19 stories). He had originally asked for 325 feet in height. The 240-foot range is a common height in the Oak Lawn area where projects like this are built without protest. Burk also lowered the apartment building to 210 feet (18 stories) from its original 275 feet. These were important concessions. \u00a0<\/p>\n When the CPC finally does take up this issue, the council chambers will be packed with affluent and largely older opponents of the project. Importantly, they vote. These North Dallasites remember a time when their neighborhoods were the most coveted areas in North Texas. This is no longer true \u2014 all good stuff has moved up the Dallas North Tollway, with the Dallas Stars soon to follow.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Ken Malcolmson, the former CEO of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce, said people have been telling him, \u201cI\u2019m not sure if I should fight it, or move into it.\u201d I expect over time the harshest critics will be at the restaurants. Most neighbors will hardly notice the change. I have some hope it will force the other retail corners to step up.<\/p>\n All the belly aching about traffic is silly. This isn\u2019t even that dense with only 175 apartments, 150 hotel rooms and 50 condos. We need more of these projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dallas behaves like a collection of suburban neighborhoods; we are not good at being urban. Nonetheless, the tax base of Dallas relies heavily on areas with taller buildings. That makes Uptown and Preston Center critically important.<\/p>\n The city faces a $50 million dollar budget shortfall. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if that number grows during the council\u2019s summer recess. That figure doesn\u2019t take into account some increasing expenses for police and fire. Nor does it account for the deferred maintenance on its buildings, infrastructure or traffic signals. Meanwhile, the city\u2019s bond rating has fallen. From an economic perspective, the city of Dallas does not just need one of these projects, it needs many of them.<\/p>\n The $800 million project<\/a> could create nearly $5.6 million for the city in taxes and nearly $8 million for the Dallas Independent School District. That would pay for 69 new police officers or 177 new first-year teachers.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Another way to look at this is to compare against the average owner-occupied home in the city, valued at $405,000. It would take more than 2,200 new homes to be constructed for the city to attain this much tax money. For the school district to have the same taxable return, it would require the construction of 3,500 new homes at this average price. According to WFAA, the city issued 3,000 permits for new home construction<\/a> in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019d also argue this project will consume few city services and generate almost no schoolchildren.\u00a0<\/p>\n The intersection of Preston and Royal currently features four corners of suburban retail. I would argue these retail corners all underserve and underperform the affluence in the surrounding area. They are fine, but not noteworthy.<\/p>\n Council member Gay Donnell Willis recently hosted a community meeting where, once again, people behaved poorly. One person went so far as to shout her down, claiming it was the people\u2019s meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some opponents of the project have taken to threatening they will \u201cJaynie Schultz\u201d her, if the item passes. Schultz was the council member who supported the Pepper Square project in North Dallas which will remake a dying shopping center into a mixed use district. Schultz decided not to run for reelection last summer and voters replaced her with Bill Roth who opposed the development which, ironically, is now moving forward. (Full disclosure: My firm worked on that project.)<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The city of Dallas and its citizens must embrace a stark reckoning: Other areas of the Metroplex are more affluent and more popular. Dallas has to get back in the game from a competitive standpoint while also growing its own tax base. Sitting on the sidelines with additional delays and the most bureaucracy is not the answer.<\/p>\n Have thoughts about this?<\/strong> Send a letter to the editor using our letters form<\/a> or email letters@dallasnews.com<\/a>. Letters should be no more than 200 words and include the first and last name of the writer and city of residence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A generated rendering of a proposed $800M mixed-use development at the southwest corner of Preston Road and Royal…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":897571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,12499,11890,12416,1596,358,326453,290171,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,38979],"class_list":["post-897570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-city-of-dallas","tag-commentary","tag-commercial-development","tag-dallas","tag-texas","tag-tp-contributing-columnists","tag-tp-dallas-city-council","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-zoning"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116824934034478558","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}